Much Ado About Languages

               Photo Source: Freepik 
 
               "War is what happens when language fails." - Margaret Atwood

Lagos, Nigeria is a fun place to be, with all the hustle and bustle. But some parts of Lagos can make you think of going on an impromptu vacation. I was in a commercial bus, when a woman boarded the bus with her two children and bags. On seeing the stress the woman was facing, ‘two good samaritans’ offered to help her. 
The two ‘samaritans’ after seeing how difficult it was for the woman, started discussing (in their dialect) about the pains women pass through at times. But it was time for them to alight from the bus and they were still discussing. 
All of a sudden, the woman who the ‘good samaritans’ tried to help, started shouting at them to alight, that, they were talking too much. You should have seen how anger, abuses and curses were unleashed on this woman. If not for anything, she could have been grateful for the help these people offered. 
After the brouhaha, I tried to understand why the woman picked up a fight when the ‘good samaritans’ were nice to her. And I saw the cause; language barrier. All because the woman couldn’t understand what those ‘good samaritans’ were saying. She felt they were talking about her in a negative way. Scenarios like this have occurred times without number.
Let's dive deeper into language barrier from a biblical point of view. It happened that the whole earth spoke one language. And men decided to build a tower that would reach heaven for their own reasons. Now, God had told man to spread across the earth but, they decided to do otherwise. 
So, God, knowing that these people could do anything they set their minds to, had to stop them from the one thing that made them able to collaborate at a certain level in respect to the project they had embarked on. And that is, oneness in language. 
Therefore, the language diversification was meant to stop them from thinking, understanding each other and collaborating at a ‘certain level’. This way, they were redirected to the original intent. The hindrance to their progress can be seen in the fact that they quit building after their language was scattered. 
So, now we know the intention behind language diversification and it couldn’t have been because God was wicked or He had inferiority complex. It was just to redirect them towards the instruction God gave man. 
In all, despite the differences, we should look out for common grounds when scenarios relating to language diversification show up. 
Till the next post, keep learning.

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